


An Inconvenient Man

by devera



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Alternate Universe - Yakuza, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 05:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1887108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devera/pseuds/devera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shichiro sees trouble coming; Genta deals with it when it gets there. It's their version of domestic bliss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Inconvenient Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dr_zook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dr_zook/gifts).



> A flipside excerpt from [20 Hand](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1788487), for the Rashamon Challenge at [Weiss vs Saiyuki](http://weissvsaiyuki.livejournal.com/). This kind of goes nowhere and does nothing except perhaps appeal to my love of equal, established relationships full of the kind of warmth and affection that doesn't require PDAs. Because Sanzo hates PDAs. And being inconvenienced.

He was careful not to bruise the leaves as he scooped them into the pot. You could tell, you know, when they were bruised. There was a dull quality to the tea that played on the edge of the tongue. It made him sad when people did that. He hardly ever drank tea outside of the shop; most people couldn't be trusted to do it right.

The aroma, when he added the water – fresh, cold spring water brought to a boil and poured exactly three seconds after ebb - was the perfect balance of sweet and earthy, with a note of citrus and cinnamon. Normally he'd steep a black tea like this for six minutes, but this blend was strong, and the brew would be too heavy, again obscuring the more delicate tastes. Four minutes, he thought; no more. He put the lid on the pot, and reached for a tea towel to finish wiping up.

Three and a half minutes eased past. He dropped the towel, picked up the pot and placed it on the serving tray next to the two cups, placed next to that a small jug of milk – not cream, cream overpowers most teas – and lifted the tray gently and took it over to the back table, where Shi-chan was reading the morning paper. He put the pot, the cups, and the milk down in the centre of the table, put the tray on the table behind him, and reached down to hook a finger around the tea pot handle and turn the pot slowly in a circle on the table top, three times. Then he picked up the milk, splashed a little into the bottom of each cup, then picked up the tea pot, placed a strainer over the first cup and poured the first cup for Shi-chan and the second for himself. Then he put the pot back down, put the strainer back in its cradle, pulled out his chair and sat down and took his headphones off.

"Morning, Shi-chan," Genta said happily and reached for his cup.

"Hn," Shi-chan grunted, and lifted his own cup to his mouth without looking at either Genta or the tea. "Huh," he said after a careful sip. "Not bad."

Genta smiled to himself over the edge of his cup. Looked like this one was on the menu then. Ever since his supplier for the Nilgiri Organic Blue went out of business, it's been "Too gritty", or "Too flat", but Genta trusted Shi-chan's opinion. If it was up to Genta, nothing would be _off_ the menu, because tea was just about the most amazing, the most wondrous thing on the planet and none of it could be bad, but if Shi-chan wasn't around to veto the blends Genta bought, they probably would have gone out of business ages ago.

"I thought I'd restock today," Genta ventured, and put his cup down for a moment. "You don't need me, do you?"

Shi-chan turned a page in his paper. "Genichi's coming at ten," he said. "He's bringing someone with him."

Genta raised his eyebrows at that. Gen-san never brought anyone with him. "He is? Who is it?"

Shi-chan sipped at his tea again. "Someone I should probably keep an eye on."

"Why?" Genta asked, drinking again. "What'd he do? He's not going to hurt Gen-san, is he?"

Shi-chan put his cup down again and then put his paper down too, folding it slowly and neatly on the table before leaning back in his seat and fixing Genta with his full attention. Or at least, what seemed like his full attention, but Genta knew from many years' experience that Shi-chan's attention wasn't there at all.

"I don't know," he said eventually. "I'll know more when I meet him." He blinked and was suddenly back and completely present. "But I think we should expect some trouble," he finished.

Genta snorted out a laugh at that and drained his cup. It was a bit funny; trouble was what they did, after all, and Genta was fairly sure when Shi-chan said 'trouble' in this context what he really meant was inconvenience because more than troubled, he hated to be inconvenienced.

"Well," Genta declared, rising from his seat. "I guess I'd better clean up then, if we're expecting company." That earned him a scowl, since the shop was as usual perfectly tidy. He put his cup back on the tray, picked the tray up and turned away back to the serving bar.

"You can bring me another pot of that while you're at it," Shi-chan told him, and behind him the paper rustled as he picked it up again.

"Sure," Genta agreed. "And one of those little muffins Maya-san brought in before too."

Genta put his headphones on and got to work, nodding in time to his music as he cleaned the pot and boiled a fresh kettle of water, and got out his best Green Jasmine, because Gen-san liked that, and Genta was sure if Gen-san liked it, his new friend would like it too.

+++

Except, when they finally arrived, Genta couldn't tell whether he liked it or not. He couldn't in fact tell anything about him at all, except that when he looked at Gen-san, there was an intensity there that he didn't have looking at anything else. Genta didn't think he was going to hurt Gen-san, although Genta would trust whatever Shi-chan said about him, but he was a pretty strange guy all the same -not terribly handsome, not like Gen-san, but there was something really interesting about him. He was quiet, and really still. Watching him gave Genta an odd frisson of feeling, almost like excitement.

And when Shi-chan looked at him, well, he seemed to feel it too. Normally when he read someone, he had a lot to say, even if it was only in his face, but when he looked at Gen-san's new friend all he said was "I see," and Genta had been with Shi-chan a lot of years now. Maybe when anyone else said that, sounded like that, you could take it at face value, but when Shi-chan said it, it meant something; something big. Genta was almost disappointed when they finished drinking their tea but Shi-chan would have killed him if he'd tried to go over there and pour them all another cup.

Gen-san's friend got up and left the room, and Genta figured that was his cue to go clean up. He went back over to the table and began to stack the cups back on the tray. Gen-san was just lighting a cigarette, and Shi-chan was just folding his paper, when Shi-chan went stiff in his chair. Genta froze, because he knew what that meant.

It was quick, always so quick. Blink and you miss it. Shi-chan never blinked.

"Leave that," Shi-chan told him suddenly, mouth a harsh straight line. "And go out the back for the trash."

Gen-san was looking at them with casual interest.

"Kurame can look after himself, you know," he said, seemingly a propos of nothing, and Shi-chan glared at him.

"That's the problem," Shi-chan snapped. "I don't want to have to take care of his mess." He threw almost the same glare at Genta. "Go on."

Genta left off cleaning up and gave Shi-chan a smile.

"Sure, okay," he said, and went.

Of course, Shi-chan hadn't really meant trash. Or at least, he hadn't meant it literally.

There were five men in the alley behind the shop, only one of whom was Gen-san's friend. As Genta opened the door, three of them were approaching Kurame-san from one end of the alley. The fourth man was behind him, with a tyre iron raised in his hand.

Genta was fast, but he would never be fast enough to get across to Kurame-san in time. He started running anyway.

Kurame-san ducked the blow he couldn't possibly have seen coming, and before Genta had managed more than two steps out the back door, the fourth man was bouncing off the car roof and slumping to the ground in that way that only completely dead people slumped. Genta didn't bother to worry about it, just threw himself across the bonnet of the car with a shout and intercepted the other men before they could get to Kurame, or perhaps more critically before Kurame could get to them.

The fight didn't last long. The men were just thugs, and Genta could have had them down in the first three seconds, but it'd been a while. He was, if he was being perfectly honest, enjoying the physicality of the fight, of letting them hit him and hitting back, of blocking and countering. But then Kurame-san asked him to stop, and so he did. He really was an interesting guy.

"Shi-chan sent me to help," Genta told him, turning from the unconscious men lying at his feet. "But you coulda handled it, I think."

Kurame-san glanced down. "Far be it from me to spoil your apparent fun," he said finally, and that made Genta want to laugh, because he didn't disapprove as much as he thought he did.

"Sorry," he shrugged, not really meaning it. "But Shi-chan didn't want to have to get rid of the bodies so he sent me out to take care of it. He's not going to be happy about that." He raised his eyebrows in the direction of the man at Kurame-san's feet. "You really don't fuck about, do you. You're pretty good," he added, stepping over one of the men he had knocked down. "Maybe we could spar some time? I haven't had a decent partner since we left Xian. It really sucks."

Kurame however didn't appear to really like that idea. Or perhaps he just liked it too much.

"I'm afraid I'm only good for one thing," he said, frowning. "I doubt I'd prove much better."

Genta totally did not believe that, but he let it go. If there was one thing Shi-chan had taught him since they'd met -and really, Shi-chan had taught him a lot of things -it was that there was a time for everything.

"Yeah, I s'pose," he sighed. "Well, you should probably get going before Gen-san comes looking for you."

"Yes," Kurame-san agreed, looking a little relieved before going back to the car and casually toeing aside the body. He opened the car door and then paused.

"Can I ask," he began carefully. "What is it that Shichiro-san does, exactly? "

Genta's eyebrows went up a little. He would have thought Gen-san would have at least explained that. "Gen-san didn't tell you?"

"No."

"Oh, well," Genta grinned. "He makes things happen. Sometimes it’s good things, and sometimes it’s not. Guess it depends on your point of view."

"I... see," Kurame said, although clearly he didn't. "Is he your father?"

Genta stared at him. And then he started to laugh, because just the idea of that, of saying that to Shi-chan...

"No," he said. "No _way_. I'll have to tell him you said that. It'll give him something to focus on while I deal with this." He stepped over to the corpse Kurame-san had pushed aside, bent down, grabbed an arm and hefted the body up over his shoulder in one strong movement. "See you 'round, Kurame-san," he said, smiling, because this guy really was very interesting, and Genta was looking forward to seeing him again. Maybe they could even be friends, of a sort. He liked that idea. He didn't have that many friends.

He heard the car door close as he carried the body back across to the shop's back door, then the engine started up and the car was gone. Probably this corpse's friends might think to come looking for him in the shop when they woke up and discovered him gone, but Genta could handle that. He balanced the body over his shoulder and pulled open the door with his free hand, and then let it slam shut behind him while he made his way down the corridor to the cold room.

He lowered the body to the floor and then proceeded to rifle through the corpse's pockets. A wallet with a company card -probably false - about ten thousand yen, and a photo of a girl with bright green hair and Day-Glo eye shadow, but she was sort of pretty underneath all that. Genta wondered whether she was a wife or a girlfriend or a sister and felt momentarily sorry for her and then let it go and continued his task. There were a set of car keys in the other pocket, so it was fairly safe to say this guy had probably been the driver. The other guys out the back would either be walking home, or they'd come looking for their wheel man. He was going to have to deal with them after all. Shi-chan was not going to be pleased.

"Too slow, were you," Shi-chan's voice came from the door way behind him and Genta took a deep, even breath.

"Just a little," he sighed, getting to his feet. There was no point in explaining to Shi-chan that he'd been fast enough to stop Kurame-san killing the other men; he already knew that. "This guy must have been the driver." He swung the car keys around a finger. "Were they here for Gen-san, and just smart enough to try and take out his bodyguard first, do you think?"

Shi-chan looked thoughtful for a moment, staring at the corpse.

"Does it matter?" he said finally, and Genta looked down at the corpse again as well.

"No, I guess it doesn't," he agreed, and bent down again, lifted the corpse back onto his shoulders, and then flipped open one of the empty tea chests and tipped the body into it. It fell with a thud, and Genta folded the rest of it inside and then closed the lid. "I need to go tie the other guys up and find their car," he said. "I'll deal with this later. You're going to have to run the shop for a bit while I'm out."

"Fine," Shi-chan grunted as Genta closed the chest lid again.

"I know you secretly enjoy it," Genta said lightly. "So you can stop pretending like you don't."

Shi-chan just snorted, and then did it again when Genta turned and grinned at him.

"Just don't take too long," Shi-chan grumbled. "Or I'll close up early and go the hell home."

Genta walked over to where Shi-chan was standing and then leaned up and kissed him on the mouth. Shi-chan turned his head slightly towards him and Genta smiled some more and kissed him again, a little more slowly.

"Yes, _Dad_ ," Genta said laughingly when he leaned back, and the reaction was about as funny as Genta had thought it would be.

" _What _/?" Shi-chan said in some amount of horror.__

"Kurame-san thought you were my father," Genta explained, grinning up into Shi-chan's shocked face. "And you know, now that I think about it, you _are_ kind of father-figurely, but I didn't bother to explain to him that it probably wasn't going to wash with you if I called you 'daddy' while you were on your knees with your-"

"Genta!" Shi-chan barked. "Do you _want_ that to happen ever again? Because I swear to God if you keep going-"

Genta laughed, and leaned up and kissed him again, even though Shi-chan's mouth was a hard line of disapproval.

"Okay, okay," he laughed as Shi-chan scowled at him and stepped aside to let him out of the room. "Sorry. I won't, I promise."

"Good," Shi-chan grunted, as Genta started back down the hall. "Any more of that cheek and I may have to _spank_ you!" he called after him as Genta pushed the back door open again, and Genta could hear the smile in his voice he obviously wasn't trying to hide.

Genta laughed some more, loud and delighted.


End file.
